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Setting a Date to Wean

I will start by saying I'm ready to wean my ds. He is still on the fence about it. Some days he says he is almost ready (a promised day at in indoor play area to celebrate has been encouraging). I know he has had milk for long enough that I should feel no guilt about weaning, my little man will be 5 this summer.

I have been tandem nursing him and little sister for over two years. A couple of months ago nursing them at the same time became unbearable. It started making me feel horrible, like want to peal my children off horrible. So now I nurse them separately. This in its self is upsetting enough for both of them.

Sorry for the long background. My real question is with a child this age has anyone gently encouraged a weaning date to work toward? Like maybe a count down calendar. Keep in mind this child still nurses 2-3x a day and would more if I let him I so wanted to let him self wean, but do not think I can make it much longer without going crazy.

Re: Setting a Date to Wean

You could always bribe your LO with a weaning party. One of our moms here did that with her kid, who was around 5 when he weaned. IIRC, he wanted a Chuck-E-Cheese party, and after the party he accepted that nursing was over.

Re: Setting a Date to Wean

Sort of. I mean my cut off Date was 4. And then Right after 4 because we were going on a trip on a plane and I wanted in my tool box while on vacation. But he wasn't ready when we came back and I let it go because it was too stressful. So we had our weaning party when he was 4.5. But we talked about it for 6 months to get there and it was a very very gradual weaning. Like he was in preschool and that whole time we were already going whole 24hour periods without it. By the end we were down to a few times a week 1st thing in the morning. He had to go a full two weeks without it before we were ready for a party. He had a couple relapses that I allowed because I really liked the idea of being able to remember the last times we did it...the weaning party was really a graduation of sorts. We treated it that way and he remember it that way. It was as big a deal in terms of people being proud of him being a big boy as when any child potty trains. He got big kid presents like a sleeping bag. We went to Chuckie Cheese. It was the largest proverbial carrot dangling ever.